Secretaries and administrative assistants

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About the work	Training qualifications	Job outlook	Earnings	Related links

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Secretaries and administrative assistants are responsible for a variety of administrative and clerical duties necessary to run an organization efficiently. They serve as an information manager for an office, schedule meetings and appointments, organize and maintain paper and electronic files, manage projects, conduct research and provide information via the telephone, postal mail and e-mail. They also may prepare correspondence and handle travel arrangements.

A variety of office equipment, such as facsimile machines, photocopiers and telephone systems, aid them. They increasingly use personal computers to create spreadsheets, compose correspondence, manage databases and create reports and documents via desktop publishing — all tasks previously handled by managers and other professionals. At the same time, these other office workers have assumed many tasks traditionally assigned to secretaries and administrative assistants, such as word processing and answering the telephone. Because secretaries and administrative assistants are often relieved from dictation and typing, they can support more members of the executive staff. In a number of organizations, secretaries and administrative assistants work in teams in order to work flexibly and share their expertise.

Specific job duties vary with experience and titles. Executive secretaries and administrative assistants, for example, perform fewer clerical tasks than other secretaries. In addition to arranging conference calls and scheduling meetings, they may handle more complex responsibilities, such as conducting research, preparing statistical reports, training employees and supervising other clerical staff.

Some secretaries and administrative assistants, such as legal, medical and technical secretaries, perform highly specialized work requiring knowledge of technical terminology and procedures.

Their jobs often involve sitting for long periods. If they spend a lot of time typing, particularly at a video display terminal, they may encounter problems of eyestrain, stress and repetitive motion, such as carpal tunnel syndrome. Office work can lend itself to alternative or flexible working arrangements, such as job sharing, part-time work or telecommuting.

Training and qualifications

High school graduates who have basic office skills may qualify for entry-level secretarial positions. Employers increasingly require extensive knowledge of software applications, such as word processing, spreadsheets and database management. Secretaries and administrative assistants should be proficient in keyboarding and good at spelling, punctuation, grammar and oral communication. Because secretaries and administrative assistants must be tactful in their dealings with people, employers also look for good interpersonal skills. Discretion, good judgment, organizational or management ability, initiative and the ability to work independently are especially important for higher-level administrative positions.

As office automation continues to evolve, retraining and continuing education will remain an integral part of secretarial jobs. Changes in the office environment have increased the demand for secretaries and administrative assistants who are adaptable and versatile.

Job outlook

Overall, employment of secretaries and administrative assistants is expected to grow more slowly than the average for all occupations over the 2000-10 period. Opportunities should be best for well-qualified and experienced secretaries.

Projected employment of secretaries will vary by occupational specialty. Employment growth in the health and legal services industries should lead to average growth for medical and legal secretaries. Employment of executive secretaries and administrative assistants also is projected to grow about as fast as the average for all occupations. Fast growing industries — such as personnel supply, computer and data processing services, health and legal services education, and engineering and management — will continue to generate most new job opportunities. A decline in employment is expected for all other secretaries, except legal, medical or executive. They account for almost half of all secretaries and administrative assistants.

Several factors will contribute to the decline in employment projected for overall numbers of secretaries and administrative assistants. Growing levels of office automation and organizational restructuring will continue to make secretaries and administrative assistants more productive in coming years. Professionals and managers increasingly do their own word processing and data entry; and handle much of their own correspondence rather than submit the work to secretaries and other support staff. Also other staff members are assuming some tasks formerly done by secretaries.

Earnings

Secretaries and administrative assistants held about 3.9 million jobs in 2000, ranking among the largest occupations in the U.S. economy. Median annual earnings of executive secretaries and administrative assistants were $31,090 in 2000.

Median annual earnings of legal secretaries, were $34,740 in 2000. Medical secretaries earned a median annual salary of $23,430 in 2000. Median annual earnings of all other secretaries, excluding legal, medical and executive secretaries, were about $23,870 in 2000.